In the Still of the Night
by Whisper of Rain
Summary: Something fishy is going on in Spira, the Gullwings are going to get to the bottom of this, with a little help from that self-assured Machine Faction leader...{RikkuXGippal}
1. Introduction

**a/n:** Hello everyone I hope you like my story, read on!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FFX or FFX-2.

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**In the Still of the Night**

**Introduction**

Spira. Beautiful, calm, mysterious, dangerous, adventures to be found everywhere. Spira was all of these things wrapped up in one word. Vegnagun was defeated and Shuyin was now at peace, reunited with Lenne, left to live out their afterlives in the Farplane.

The Calm continued on and it was now a year later. The people of Spira were now left to live their lives out in peace.

Yuna. She has not yet been able to find Tidus. He has been gone since the day they defeated Sin, three years ago. She didn't want to give up hope that he was out there somewhere, she loved him so much she desperately wanted to see him again. Yuna remained a sphere hunter with the Gullwings along with Rikku, Buddy, Brother and Shinra. Although, she was trying to get herself to accept the fact that she may very well never see him again. It killed her inside to think that way, but she knew she had to face it, and she was getting better at it. She was now concentrating on traveling with the Gullwings in search of spheres for the research of Spira's past, with of course, hopes of finding anything that may lead her to Tidus.

Now, Rikku had spent most of her time in the past year with the Gullwings, but she has been trying to lend more and more of her time in helping the Al Bhed rebuild Home since about seven months ago, Cid, her father decided that they should rebuild it.

A little over seven months ago was when Paine decided to leave the Gullwings and go on a journey of her own in search of her past. She decided that she would once and for all face her past and take it head on, alone. So off she went, she was missed but no one worried about her, they all knew full well that Paine could take care of herself.

Gippal was still his same old self, the cocky and self-assured leader of the Al Bhed group, the Machine Faction. Between developing new machina devices day after day and helping out with the reconstruction of Home, Gippal was doing quite nicely for himself.

The there was Baralai and Nooj, leaders of New Yevon and the Youth League. These two groups were no longer at each other's throats; they've learnt how to work side by side in aiding the search of Spira for spheres of the past.

And lets not forget Buddy, Brother and Shinra, who make up just over half of the Gullwings. Buddy, always there to take you wherever it is you need to go, Shinra, always tinkering with some new invention and Brother being… well, Brother.

Yes, aside from the occasional run-in with a fiend here and there, Spira was quite and wonderful place to live…


	2. Close Call

**Chapter One – Close Call**

It was one of the many hot days out in the Bikanel Desert as the sun shone up in one of the bluest skies you have ever seen, while below it were the Al Bhed diggers from the Machine Faction as well as those who were helping with the reconstruction of Home.

You see, when Cid decided to rebuild Home he struck a deal with the Machine Faction leader, Gippal, to combine both groups of Al Bhed and have them search for both part s for the Machine Faction and pieces they could use for the reconstruction of Home as well as have more workers to do the building. That way workers digging in the hot desert could switch and go work at Home where they could have at least some shelter from the burning sun.

At the moment, Cid and Gippal were at the excavation camp having a meeting with Nhadala. While out in the Southern Expanse, which was where most of the digging was being done at this point in time, Rikku was digging among a few other Al Bhed and Picket was near by keeping and eye on things.

Rikku was enjoying herself as she dug, either she liked working outside with the sun shining down on her or she was just excited about reuniting with Yuna the next day to continue on with their adventures with the Gullwings after they had taken a break so she could return to the Bikanel Desert to help her father with the reconstruction of Home. Just as she was thinking about all the fun she and Yuna would have it suddenly got dark out. Rikku was puzzled as she wondered where the sun could have gone, but then she froze when she realized that the sun hadn't gone anywhere at all, it was a giant shadow that was being cast over her. She didn't know what to do; her mind had gone completely blank. She was riddled with fear, but then she heard the screams of the Al Bhed man who was working not ten feet behind her.

"HELP ME! AHHHHHH!"

Rikku whipped around to see the biggest sand worm that she had ever laid eyes on in her life. The enormous beast was attempting to suck the terrified Al Bhed into it's huge, saliva covered mouth as the man tried to escape, clawing frantically at the sand still screaming for dear life. Rikku's instincts immediately kicked in as she sprung to her feet, as she did this she could hear Picket speed off exclaiming "Danger! Danger!" But she wasn't going to run, she had to help him escape. She didn't have any weapons, all she had were a few digging tools, so she then proceeded to hurl all of them at the sand worm as hard as she possibly could.

"LEAVE HIME ALONE!" Rikku screamed as she threw another tool.

It worked. The worm was distracted and stopped trying to engulf the man and he was able to get to his feet and bolt out of there faster than you could possibly imagine. Unfortunately, now Rikku had the fiend's full attention on her and it was more than angry.

Rikku's eyes widened with fear as she desperately looked all around her for another human being, but no one was found they had all fled in terror. It was just her, the sand worm and absolutely nothing to use to defend herself with, seeing as how she threw every last tool she had at the beast to save her fellow co-worker. Rikku's heart sunk into her feet and all she could think of was one word.

Run.

Rikku twisted herself around and ran as fast as she could in the other direction hoping she could outrun it. But the monstrous fiend was fast and it was only gaining on her. The sand worm swung its massive head at Rikku and it was a right on hit. The blow sent Rikku flying thirty feet forward in the air and she landed in the sand on her back. All the wind was knocked out of her and she wondered if all her bones were broken for she couldn't seem to muster up the strength to move any of her limbs.

"…hel…p…" was all she could seem to utter, so quietly she could barely even hear herself, there was no way anyone else would hear her. Her vision became hazy and soon all went to black.

Rikku lay there, unconscious, in the sand as the worm slithered up to her, ready to attack, ready to finish her off.

Just then, a series of bullets were shot into the sand worm's backside. The fiend turned around, forgetting about Rikku, to face its attacker. Well, make that attackers. There stood Cid and Gippal, each equipped with machina guns ready to unleash another round of bullets in to the fiend, and Picket could been seen hovering high in the air above them. They began to shoot, the fiend then swiped at Gippal but the managed to roll out of the way. Gippal was now at the worm's side while Cid remained in front of it, Cid then began to back up quickly leading the sand worm away from Rikku as Gippal prepared to throw a grenade. When they got a good twenty feet away Gippal threw the grenade and he and Cid both ran for cover. The sand worm burst into hundreds of pyreflies, they were safe but what about Rikku?

Gippal and Cid ran to Rikku and knelt down, each on one side of her with very worried expressions plastered on their faces.

Cid took Rikku up in his arms, trying to find any clues of vital signs. "Rikku wake up!" Cid shouted "Riiiiikkuuu!"

-

Rikku slowly opens her eyes, feeling very groggy, looking around as she lies still on a cot she realizes that she's inside a small brown tent, she assumes that she must be at the excavation camp. She's pretty weak but she manages to prop herself up on her elbows with her arms behind her to get a better look around. She remembers the sand worm but has no knowledge of how she got here and she wonders exactly how long she's been out. Just then she could hear someone whispering near by, she took a better look around and she could see two silhouettes of two people against the wall of her tent, she could tell one was male and the other was female. She concentrated to try and hear what they were saying.

"Is Rikku going to be alright?" whispered the male voice, sounding rather worried. Rikku noticed the voice sounded very familiar.

"She's going to be just fine. We used some healing potions on her, now all she needs is plenty of rest." Responded the female voice, also in a whisper.

"Let me know when she wakes up, and that she's okay." Whispered back the male voice, you could hear a hint of urgency in his voice.

"Gippal, don't worry. I told you she's gonna be alright." Responded the female voice.

_Gippal? Worried about me? _Rikku thought to herself. _That doesn't make any sense._

Rikku figured that she must be delusional. Gippal didn't care about her, did he? He was always teasing her, making fun of her and always pushing her around. Rikku was confused. She then watched as Gippal's silhouette disappeared from the tent wall and the other one moved towards the door of the tent and then in entered a nurse.

"Well, it's about time you woke up. How are you feeling?" The nurse said to Rikku with a smile.

"A little groggy. How long was I out for?" Rikku asked.

"For about four hours, you had us all pretty worried there for a while."

Worried. That made Rikku think about what she had heard Gippal say. Rikku shook her head and she tried to get up.

"Whoa. Where do you think you're going?" said the nurse as she motioned for Rikku to lie back down. "If you want to get better anytime soon you're gonna have to stay in bed for the rest of the day."

Rikku scrunched up her nose, but she knew that the nurse was right and she wanted to be alright for tomorrow, she wanted to go see Yuna. So she did as she was told.

-

It was the next morning and Rikku awoke in her room at the Al Bhed Home. The Al Bhed Home was partially constructed and contained some bedrooms for those who lived there so they could stay there and get more work done in a shorter period of time. There was also another campsite near by for those who couldn't have a room in Home because there wasn't enough constructed yet and also for those who frequently came and went from the construction site, such as the workers from the Machine Faction.

Rikku, feeling much better and very well rested, got out of bed and stretched her arms out as far as she could above her head and let out a content sigh as she let he arms drop back down to her sides. Rikku quickly got dressed in her excitement to get back with the Gullwings, Brother should be waiting outside for her right now in the Celsius. Rikku grabbed her bag, which she had packed the previous morning, and started to make her way out to the airship.

Rikku exited the doors of Home and she saw the Celsius parked just a short distance behind the campsite, so she continued to make her way to the airship.

As she neared the Celsius she saw three men standing together talking, it was Buddy, Gippal and Cid. Her father was the first to spot her and he immediately left the other two men and came over to talk to her. Rikku stopped a short distance away from the group when she saw her father and waited for him to come to her.

"Rikku how are you feeling?" Cid asked.

"I'm fine pops. All ready to leave." Rikku replied as she held up her bag.

"Well, take it easy Rikku, I don't wanna hear of a repeat of yesterday's events." Cid stated, showing concern in his voice.

"E'mm pa veha, tuh'd funno." _(I'll be fine, don't worry.)_ Rikku replied.

With that Cid nodded to himself, patted Rikku on the shoulder and headed in the direction of Home. She could hear Brother from inside the Celsius yelling for Buddy to get on board, he was wanting to leave. Buddy said goodbye to Gippal and went aboard. Rikku figured she had better hurry onto the airship herself.

Rikku headed to the Celsius in the direction of Gippal as he began to walk to Home. She smiled and waved as she approached him. "Hiya Gippal."

Gippal smirked and playfully pushed Rikku's shoulders "Tsk. You were almost a goner yesterday, you're lucky **I** came to your rescue." He then began to walk away. "See ya around, Cid's girl."

Rikku turned around and watched him walk away; she scrunched up her nose at his last comment. "Meanie!" She called out after him. She could hear him chuckling in the distance. Rikku then boarded the airship and took her seat at the front of the Celsius. She began to think about Gippal and what she had overheard him say to the nurse the day before, also she realized that he had saved her from that sand worm. She started to get butterflies in her stomach. Rikku shook off her thoughts of Gippal and concentrated on her excitement of seeing Yuna, she would be in Besaid before she knew it.


	3. Peculiar

**Chapter Two – Peculiar**

As most days were, it was a hot day in the little village of Besaid, but despite it's small size, Besaid was full of people and full of life. As the Celsius approached you could see the people walking in the center of the village, there were children running and playing near the temple and down on the beach there a few Besaid Aurochs practicing Blitz Ball near the sparkling, clear blue water. Rikku smiled as she stared out the window.

The Celsius dropped Rikku off just in front of the village. Brother yelled out to Rikku to hurry back with Yuna, but Rikku just ignored him and eagerly made her way into the village and into Lulu and Wakka's house.

Lulu sat in a rocking chair that was placed near a crib and in her arms was little Vidina, fast asleep. Wakka was seated at a table on the other side of the little house, busing himself with some laundry he was folding. They both looked up and greeted Rikku with a smile when she entered.

"Hiya guys!" Rikku said as she walked in.

"Hey Rikku." Wakka said, taking his attention away from the laundry.

"Hello Rikku, good to see you. If you're looking for Yuna she's at the temple." Lulu told her.

"Rikku thanked Lulu and exited the house and made her way to the temple. She walked up the steps and entered the temple through the tall doors into the dim-lighted, circular room where statues surrounded the room and three doors could be found at the far end, two on ground level and in between those two a set of stairs led up to the third one.

"Yunie?" Rikku asked out loud, but as she looked around the room she couldn't find any sign of anyone.

Rikku decided she would check the two rooms on either side of the stairs, maybe Yuna would be in there.

She returned a few minutes later and stared up at the third door that led down into the temple and to the Chamber of the Fayth. A very confused look formed on Rikku's face.

_Yunie wouldn't be down there, would she?_ Rikku thought to herself.

She decided that it could hurt to check, so up the stairs she went, through the door and descended down into the temple. She found it rather eerie walking through the halls of the temple all alone, she hoped that she would find Yuna soon so she could get out of this place.

Rikku reached the Chamber of the Fayth, but she didn't find Yuna there, the room was empty.

"Then where'd she go?" Rikku asked out loud to no one.

A cold chill ran up Rikku's spine, she felt like someone was watching her, like someone was in the room. She turned around and saw what she thought was a shadow zooming by in the next room. "Yunie!" Rikku called out as she followed the silhouette, but once again she found no one. She stomped her foot in frustration, where was Yuna? She was getting a little worried; she decided to go tell Lulu and Wakka that she couldn't find her.

Rikku arrived back at the house and Wakka and Lulu that Yuna wasn't at the temple. So Rikku and Wakka decided to split up and search for her. Wakka looked around town and Rikku went down to the beach to search, asking everyone they came across if they had seen Yuna. But sadly, no one had seen her. Defeated, Rikku returned to meet Wakka outside of his house.

"Where could she be? This isn't like her, ya?" Wakka said scratching his head.

"Yunie, where are you?" Rikku said with a frightened tone in her voice.

Just then, Yuna comes walking into the village looking just fine and simply greeted her two friends with a smile.

"Hi guys."

"Where have you been?" Wakka asked, raising his voice a little.

"Yunie!" Rikku exclaimed as she ran up to the clueless girl and grabbed he by the shoulders. "Where were you? We've been looking all over for you, we were worried."

Yuna looked surprised. "Oh my, have I really been gone that long?" An apologetic expression came across her face as she looked at the ground. "I'm so sorry, I was down at the cove, beside the beach, I must have lost track of time." She looked up at Wakka "I'm sorry."

Rikku let out a sigh of relief and hugged her cousin.

"Well as long as you're alright, ya?" Wakka said, looking relieved.

Lulu appeared at the door to see what was going on, glad to see that Yuna had been found.

"Rikku! Where are you?" Brother yelled from the airship in his thick Al Bhed accent.

"We're coming." Rikku replied, annoyed.

"Well I guess you had better be on your way." Lulu told them, Yuna nodded.

They said their goodbyes and the two girls made their way onto the Celsius and the then proceeded to take off. As they headed away from Besaid Yuna asked Buddy where they were going.

"So Buddy, where are we off to today?" She asked cheerfully.

"Well – " Buddy got cut off when their distress signal started flashing and beeping.

"It's coming from the Djose temple… it's urgent, we'd better go check it out." Buddy told everyone, as he changed their destination. Brother just grumbled at the thought of having to see Gippal.

The Celsius landed and the Gullwings made their way into the temple. Over the last year the Djose temple had grown a fair amount they were developing new and better machina day after day and they had also added a new wing onto the right side of the temple, containing a few bedrooms and various labs for their machina. Once inside a female Al Bhed worker greeted them, she wore a troubled look on her face.

"I'm glad you guys could make it here so quickly." She said.

"Why do you need our help? Why didn't you just get Gippal to take care of it?" Rikku interrupted.

"We tried to contact him out a Bikanel but we couldn't get through and I'm not sure when he's due back here. So our next idea was to call on you guys." The Al Bhed woman informed them.

"So what's happening?" Yuna asked.

The woman began to explain what happened "Well, I was working down in the cloister of trials earlier, just me an another worker, when I heard a strange noise. So I stopped what I was doing and ran around the corner to see what it was. When I got around the corner I saw that the guy I was working with was lying on the ground and I saw someone running away. So I chased after them out the front doors and yelled l to one of the men on a hover to catch him. He sped off after the intruder and I ran back to check on my co-worker, he was all right but he never got a look at who it was that hit him.

"Did they catch them with the hover?" Rikku asked.

"No. He sped off after them down the Djose Highroad but he said it was like they just, vanished into thin air." She replied looking puzzled. "…But we thought that maybe you guys could spread the word about this around Spira. Just incase this isn't an isolated incident. Just have them on their guard for any suspicious characters lurking around."

"We'd be glad to help." Buddy answered.

Rikku remembered when she was down in the temple in Besaid. She wasn't sure if she had actually seen anyone at all but she thought that maybe the others should hear about it anyways.

"When I was looking for Yunie in the temple in Besaid it felt like someone was watching she and I thought that I saw someone too. I didn't think much of it then but maybe there's a connection?"

The Al Bhed woman raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. That is interesting. Maybe it's the temples that should be on the lookout."


End file.
